I'm writing this post sitting at a hotel restaurant about 20 meters from the insanely blue ocean with the sandbank of Pange Reef in the distance. This hotel has the fastest wifi in Stone Town, but it only lasts for an hour (good things never last). And I received another marriage proposal on the way here, so that brings to total up to five since I've been here. Don't worry mom, I haven't accepted any!
Having been living in Zanzibar for a bit over a month now, I'm starting to really use the language more and communicate better with the locals. But, I still constantly screw up, hence the title of this post. I guess I'm now sort of tri-lingual with English, Spanish, and Kiswahili, so it would make sense that I get the three confused in my head sometimes, especially Spanish and Kiswahili. It's been difficult, especially since I haven't been truly introduced to a new language since I was about seven years old.
Being thrown into a completely new language is a fun and different experience, but it can get difficult very quickly, especially when you're not involved in a Western language. The style of Kiswahili is very different than many of the Western languages, so vocabulary is hard to remember just becuase it is so foreign. But we have had the best Kiswahili instructors in Stone Town, and even better than that are the people of Zanzibar. It's fun to be known as those mzungu wanafunzi who know Kiswahili, and the locals love to help us practice, always quizzing us and testing how much we can understand and speak. And when we get visibly frustrated with our lack of Kiswahili skills, we're always told either "pole, pole" (pronounce pol-ay) or "kidogo, kidogo", both which mean to slow down because we'll get it eventually. Just another way the Zanzibaris have been extremely kind to us since we've been here.
We even got to graffiti a wall (behind us)
Kiswahili technically isn't too difficult in the same way as the Western languages are: there aren't many irregulars, the conjugations are straightforward, as well as the tenses. The difficult part of the language is the fact that there are so few words. This means that one word can mean five different things in English, which gets really confusing. For example, I asked a fishermen about the trends he's seen in the fishing industry of Zanzibar, and I couldn't figure out if the answer he gave me was that the fish size was getting smaller or if the fish population was getting smaller. That's why, in Kiswahili, it takes many sentances to say what one sentance says in English. I would think that would be rather annoying, but it goes along well with the "pole pole" Swahili culture and being on island time, everything moves slower. The only time I've been frustrated with this has been in lecture, when a simple concept is very overexplained until it's beaten into the ground. Today in class, I asked a question about whether or not the workers at Jozani forest reserve put tags on their Red Colobus Monkeys to keep track of them and I got a five minute explanation of what tags are and that they can be different colors and that they have been used in the past, but I never got a straight answer to my "yes or no" question.
But when your classroom is the ocean, you want to embrace the "pole pole" culture
But these are two totally different cultures, and that's just how it is here - and it's not like I had anywhere special to be after the lecture. Probably the most fun we've had with Kiswahili are the mistakes we've made. In my Kiswahili oral exam, I spoke a full sentence of Spanish to my mwalimu (teacher) before I realized I wasn't in either English or Kiswahili. I gasped, covered my mouth, and apologized over and over again. My mwalimu thought it was absolutely hilarious, and I still passed, so that's a good thing! I've made many other not-so-great mistakes though, and so have the rest of the wanafunzi. See below:
Trying to say: I've had a good day (responding to a greeting)
Actually said: Banana
Trying to say: I'm drinking coffee
Actually said: I'm taking a poop
Trying to say: Brush your teeth before you go to bed
Actually said: Brush your teeth before sex
Friend trying to say: Hold him back
Friend actually said: Grab his butt
Friend understood: My husband is doing laundry
What was actually said: My husband is dead
Whoops!
Even though we make many mistakes, it's really appreciated when we try to actually learn the local language and not just going around to people saying "Jambo, Jambo!". Combining the language with actually dressing appropriately (loose-fitting clothing, knees and shoulders covered, etc.) helps us to be much more accepted than the white tourists around Stone Town. It also helps when you know some numbers in Kiswahili so you can barter at the market. Once we learned numbers, we were able to go and buy fabric and fruits and not get the mzungu price.
On another note, this is my last week with my homestay family. I'm going to miss them so much and will definitely visit while I'm doing my research project at the end of my program, but it's very sad that I won't be living with them again until right before I head back to the States. We head to Jozani National Forest Reserve this weekend, and then jet off to the land-of-no-internet Pemba Island for ten days after that.
Asante sana kwa kusoma!
Kim
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